They aren't the same song because of the tempo. As one comment on YouTube there said, the two songs have very similar, if not the same, structures: "the notes change up at the same points in both songs, even though the actual melodies are different". This is what the video is trying to explain. Regarding the variety, it's true that all the music heard 'til now has celebratory vibes to it. No menacing sounding pieces like Scrap Brain Zone, or calm paced songs like Lava Reef Act 2 (the closest thing to 'calm' we have is Stardust Speedway Act 1). But it's also true we haven't heard the whole OST yet, not even half of it, I think. EDIT: Holy shit, that Jumping Flash song is pretty fucking uncanny, at least the beginning!
That mini-boss theme is something special. Took a lot of inspiration from MJ for certain, even evidenced in the track title; "Danger on the Dancefloor." Very much like MJ's compilation Blood on the Dancefloor. It also echoes the Sonic 3 mini-boss theme in a way, while I also got hints of Mystic Cave, Sandopolis, and Launch Base out of it. I love it. [Edit] And now I cannot un-hear the similarity to Jumping Flash!
I'm probably being unable to compare melodies/motifs alone without throwing instruments out, but oh yes, I can tell you that. (note to self: look up for Jumping Flash's soundtrack, it's fucking awesome)
Honestly, as much as I tend to love Tee Lopes' remixes, I'm a bit disappointed by his original Mania tracks revealed so far. I have to agree with the people saying that they lack variety, and that the miniboss theme sounds too celebratory. Hopefully they will grow on me.
Even I though I personally don't agree....I think its perfectly fine to have criticisms about the soundtrack in this game. Somehow though I wonder if the criticisms are because people did not experience the CD style of instrumentation. Sonic CD and Sonic 3, for example, do have quite a different flavor even though the games are one year apart. I grew up playing Sonic 3K probably a thousand times more often than the other classics and have more nostalgia for that than CD, but I still appreciate that style as well. I love just about everything I've heard from Tee so far and commend him on doing a fantastic job. He's should be a series mainstay, in my opinion. The only track I don't like, ironically, is the title theme and the 'invincibility' music (because its the same theme). Studiopolis is phenomenal though; I've had to bump that a few times in the headphones while out running errands. In any case, this stuff is miles better than the likes of Sonic 4 and far and emulates the CD era very well from what we've heard so far. **Crossing my fingers, hoping to get another Collision Chaos good future (JP/EU version)**
Tee Lopes' music for this game is fucking great IMO. Studiopolis remains godlike so I don't think he'll let us down with Mania's OST. He captures the spirit and essence of the original games effortlessly and his productions are leagues ahead of anything we've heard in a recent Sonic game before (I'm looking at you Sonic 4). Just over 5 days to go. The game's getting close. I think it's going to take Herculean willpower to not be tempted to see the leaks before the game releases which are almost certainly coming any hour now. I think the level roster will probably be leaked first. It's quite miraculous nothing has leaked thus far this close to release. Wonder when reviews will be coming out for this? Surely we should see them before release day on August 15?
You're not wrong. Although I wouldn't take it quite as far because I quite like Mirage Saloon and the various jingles we've heard so far. I would suggest that the Sonic fan community, as a whole, isn't really that good at making Sonic music yet. People get lost in special effects and forget to compose a good and catchy melody - it's a thing I've noticed with Tee Lopes' work for a while but we're all still learning. It is, I would argue, about 75% "there" in most cases - I think the instruments and the tempo and the general tone of the song are mostly sorted, but that mini-boss theme lacks much of a tune. It's praised now, but ten years down the line people will draw attention to it more often. Probably. All other areas of Sonic fan game development have gone through this. Here's a treat - when I turned up around 2001, Thirdscape was a standard bearer. This was an exceedingly good game back in the day and nobody would criticise it, because oh my god original graphics and oh my god the rings have physics. In 2017 we can see it for what it truly is - a lot of awkwardly proportioned sprites and gradients up the arse. But there's been like, nearly two decades to learn how to draw Sonic and figure out how collision works. There has not been this length of time to work out how to make Sonic music, because a) bandwidth didn't allow it until comparitively recently and b) the resources and knowledge haven't been there. It's just something that needs to be collectively studied a bit more - I have absolutely no doubt that Tee Lopes will turn up with a much better soundtrack to Sonic Mania 2 or whatever he does next. As to whether it sounds like a soundtrack plucked out of the 80s or 90s.... it uh... sounds like it was written in 2016/2017 for Sonic Mania. It doesn't sound like a Mega Drive, 32X or Saturn game, but I'm mostly okay with that. In fact if you compare it to something actually written in the mid-90s for the Saturn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQiSqjjr3Ig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CAq9aZluHw you might come to the conclusion that actually, it's not really as "rich" as it could be and maybe a few modern touches would make a difference. I've been meaning to look up old Now! albums (specifically the early 20s) since they better reflect that early 90s pop sound. You don't get much of this on mainstream radio... probably because it brings back bad memories of massive overhauls at BBC Radio 1 and many lost jobs.
Yeah, I was actually thinking we were going to get some reviews today. I guess we still have Thursday and Friday. Though I'm expecting them Monday now.
I think Sega might be having review outlets withhold posting reviews until as late as possible just to avoid potential spoilers.(which is a good thing imo) But I will agree that its sort of weird to not have seen any sort of review find its way onto the internet yet.
About the reviews... I'm a pretty calm and rational guy in most areas of my life. Sonic is admittedly one of the exceptions in which I tend to lose a bit of that but still I do try to be an adult and allow other people to say whatever they want about my favorite game franchise. It is a game of no consequence to any of us. And hey, we like what we like, and no one can take our favorites away from us. .....But if I see one review for this game below an 8.0 overall: [media]https://youtu.be/AnwgbH0TPbI?t=1m59s[/media]
Opinions are opinions and all. But honestly, Tee Lopes' soundtrack is probably the most refreshing thing to happen to Sonic music in a long while (Besides Tomoya Ohtani's anime opening/closing style of music). The music screams of late 80s - 90s. I personally love Studiopolis, Mirage Saloon, and especially the new Stardust Speedway Past themes.
I know you're joking, but please don't. Complaining about less-than-stellar reviews is grade-a toxic gamer culture.
Eh, I honestly just think people are taking issue with Tee's style, not his approach. The series never was consistent with it's style which is why you can have two different Carnival stages from the same series sound almost nothing alike. http://youtu.be/gHwHiymSojk http://youtu.be/2d1AmaIRllU He's doing everything a classic Sonic game would have done, just the Tee Lopes way. Which, I suppose does tend to blend together after a while. So I guess in that regard yeah, I can understand the complaint about lacking variety. But I'll take this over the snorefest of a soundtrack the series has been hit with lately. I like Unleashed and up's music, but it just doesn't have that same thrust the classic pop inspired sound does imo.
This is why I don't order physical games (or in this case, physical product with digital game code) for a big IP like Sonic Mania. I almost always see this incident happen to folks who order online, hoping to get their product day of release day or close to it. Screw that stress. Sorry you have to deal with it. EDIT: Also, make sure when the game releases to openly review all your opinions (constructively) on music and such so that the developers can see it. Otherwise don't expect much changes for the future, if proper changes need to happen on anything. Tee Lopes has KILLED it in the music department -- I will agree that I hope for more variety in tone for Sonic Mania.
This was just sent to me a lil while ago. I guess I'm lucky or something, my PC Collector's edition was also bumped up to the 15th. I pre-ordered DAY 1 if that has anything to do with it...
Agreed. As much as I love Ohtani's music, I can't say it captures the 'feel' of Sonic in the same way I'm feeling the Mania soundtrack does. Whilst yes, I feel Mania's music is playing it safe by sticking with 'not-Sonic CD' and 'not-Michael Jackson' tracks, I'll take that over whatever strange noise has been written for Classic Green Hill in Forces, or Sonic 4's attempt to do 'classic' music (which to be fair to Senoue, some of those tracks would have sounded great with actual instruments in a modern Sonic game).
Sonic Forces Green Hill, I still don't understand that at all. The music became disgustingly catchy, but exchanges nostalgia for too much cuteness with a dash of Splash Hill Zone to stab one in the back. But it strangely has that "longing for yesterday, but there's hope for tomorrow" vibe.
That is a reason why we're not good at Sonic music - every game sounds completely different. Sonic CD even manages to have two soundtracks, which is generally a sign there's not much confidence there. Though in Sonic 3D's case, it is meant to be reflecting a very different style of play to the 2D games, so you'd never expect them to sound identical. However regardless of genres or styles or whatever - most Sonic games still have a tune. Even Sonic 2006 gets a pass on that one. As I said, I don't think it's completely terrible but there are areas for improvement and it will be directly compared to some of the greatest video game soundtracks ever made. To illustrate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLcblxrrE0Q There's a tune at the 50 second mark, but the preceeding 30-ish seconds are a bit hap-hazard. And then you kind-of think about gameplay science - from my experience, most people don't last 50 seconds in a special stage. I'm not sure I care that much personally but it's definitely a thing, and I've noticed it in one or two tracks.
